I discovered that I know a psychopath. There are a lot of psychopaths around. It is important that you be able to identify one before you get involved with one. I have posted a few comments where a Kosite has expressed bafflement at events occuring around them but I didn't feel like this was being adequately discussed. This is my first diary so forgive any goofs I make, this is a public service announcement. The three articles I quote answer more than a few questions for me.
I’ve been thinking about this diary for quite a while. Although I do not consider writing to be one of my stronger skills I feel compelled to relate some things I’ve learned. I don’t know much about how to do this (diary)and I feel somewhat intimidated by the level of discourse here. So...I’ll get this off my mind, the best I can, and fade back into lurkerdom.
Several years ago a friend was relating to me some outrageous stories about her stepson. Stories of unbelievably malicious lies, told to family and anyone they happened to be talking to, and behavior above and behind human. At that time, I knew that what she was describing was pathologic behavior. I’m no psychologist, but I can smell pathology. I didn't have a name for it but I soon ran across it.
It was about this time of year, "Columbine", several anniversary articles were published, including one from "Slate".
This is not about Columbine, this is about the symptoms I recognized in Eric Harris (I hate to write the name), which started the clanging of etiological bells. I think the nature of the lying separates psychopathic lying even from pathologic lying. My interpretation.
http://www.slate.com/id/2099203/
"Diagnosing him as a psychopath was not a simple matter."
Very significant, clinical narcissistic psychopathy, NOT an easy Dx. They can fool the best analysts, but this is a well defined, specific, personality disorder, an actual physical defect that leaves a person absolutely devoid of a conscience, and unable to feel empathy. They are frequently described as charming. If they are abused as children they can grow up to be the ultimate abusers, however, raised under good circumstances they can become CEOs, lawyers, politicians, maybe even president of the United States.
[Eric]Harris claimed to lie to protect himself, but that appears to be something of a lie as well. He lied for pleasure, Fuselier says. "Duping delight"—psychologist Paul Ekman's term—represents a key characteristic of the psychopathic profile.
Harris married his deceitfulness with a total lack of remorse or empathy—another distinctive quality of the psychopath.
snip
Harris' pattern of grandiosity, glibness, contempt, lack of empathy, and superiority read like the bullet points on Hare's Psychopathy Checklist and convinced Fuselier and the other leading psychiatrists close to the case that Harris was a psychopath.
snip
It begins to explain Harris' unbelievably callous behavior: his ability to shoot his classmates, then stop to taunt them while they writhed in pain, then finish them off. Because psychopaths are guided by such a different thought process than non-psychopathic humans, we tend to find their behavior inexplicable. But they're actually much easier to predict than the rest of us once you understand them. Psychopaths follow much stricter behavior patterns than the rest of us because they are unfettered by conscience, living solely for their own aggrandizement.
None of his victims means anything to the psychopath. He recognizes other people only as means to obtain what he desires. Not only does he feel no guilt for destroying their lives, he doesn't grasp what they feel.
snip
"Because of their inability to appreciate the feelings of others, some psychopaths are capable of behavior that normal people find not only horrific but baffling," Hare writes.
So..... I’m relating this information to the stepmother and all sorts of LEDs light up in one of her circuits. He’s a psychopath OK, virulent, dangerous. Further research on this topic revealed a fascinating, semi/non human, comprising an estimated 1% of the population. That’s what.....4 million of them in this country, now. That strikes me as a lot.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Psychopathy
Though in widespread use, psychopathy has no precise equivalent[6] in either the DSM-IV-TR, where it is most strongly correlated with antisocial personality disorder, or the ICD-10, where it is correlated with dissocial personality disorder. Some experts are working toward listing psychopathy as a unique disorder. However, only a minority of diagnosable psychopaths are violent offenders [7] [8]. The manipulative skills of some of the others are valued for providing audacious leadership [9]. Some have argued that psychopathy is adaptive in a highly competitive environment, because it gets results for both the individual and the corporations [10] they represent [11].
In current clinical use, psychopathy is most commonly diagnosed using the checklist devised by Emeritus Professor Robert Hare. He describes psychopaths as "intraspecies predators [12] [13] who use charm, manipulation, intimidation, and violence [14] [15] [16] to control others and to satisfy their own selfish needs. Lacking in conscience and in feelings for others, they take what they want and do as they please, violating social norms and expectations without guilt or remorse" [17]. "What is missing, in other words, are the very qualities that allow a human being to live in social harmony."[18]
Robert D. Hare, Ph.D. Psychopath Diagnostic Checklist
1.Glibness/superficial charm
- Grandiose sense of self-worth
- Need for stimulation/proneness to boredom
- Pathological lying
- Conning/manipulative
- Lack of remorse or guilt
- Shallow affect
- Callous/lack of empathy
- Parasitic lifestyle
- Poor behavioural controls
- Promiscuous sexual behaviour
- Early behaviour problems
- Lack of realistic, long-term plans
- Impulsivity
- Irresponsibility
- Failure to accept responsibility for own actions
- Many short-term relationships
- Juvenile delinquency
- Revocation of conditional release
- Criminal versatility
Research into a group of individuals that could be described as psychopathic was first completed by Philippe Pinel almost 200 years ago. Pinel described patients as "insane without delirium," which he characterized as a lack of restraint and remorselessness for their actions. Pinel felt that his patients were morally neutral, reflecting his humanistic approach to mental illness.[19]
The next most distinctive work on psychopaths was done in 1941 by Hervey M. Cleckley in his book The Mask of Sanity (significantly expanded in the second edition of 1950). Cleckley offered a broad range of case histories, from all corners of society, all of which showed patients with the common characteristic of "emotional emptiness."[20] Cleckley probed the psychopath's attitudes and thought patterns in search of a meaning for their unusual behaviour; however, according to Robert Hare, Cleckley's most important contribution was in providing the framework of emotion for most future research into this disorder.[21
]
I did not include the scoring instructions intentionally.
http://www.hare.org/links/saturday.html/
Robert Hercz
Psychopaths love chaos and hate rules, so they're comfortable in the fast-moving modern corporation. Dr. Paul Babiak, an industrial-organizational psychologist based near New York City, is in the process of writing a book with Bob Hare called When Psychopaths Go to Work: Cons, Bullies and the Puppetmaster. The subtitle refers to the three broad classes of psychopaths Babiak has encountered in the workplace.
How can you tell if your boss is a psychopath? It's not easy, says Babiak. "They have traits similar to ideal leaders. You would expect an ideal leader to be narcissistic, self-centred, dominant, very assertive, maybe to the point of being aggressive. Those things can easily be mistaken for the aggression and bullying that a psychopath would demonstrate. The ability to get people to follow you is a leadership trait, but being charismatic to the point of manipulating people is a psychopathic trait. They can sometimes be confused
"A lot of white-collar criminals are psychopaths," says Bob Hare. "But they flourish because the characteristics that define the disorder are actually valued. When they get caught, what happens? A slap on the wrist, a six-month ban from trading, and don't give us the $100 million back. I've always looked at white-collar crime as being as bad or worse than some of the physically violent crimes that are committed."
Here are a couple of additional symptoms.
They will tell the same lies repeatedly, with full knowlege that you know they are lying.
They will tell lies they don't even have to tell.
They lie to frighten, confuse, and try to keep you off balance. They lie for the sport, it's a game.
They are never embarrased when cought in a lie, they just tell another.
They are frequently believed because their lies are so outrageous people think no one would say such a thing if it wasn't true.
I have tried to give a glimpse of the psychopathic mind. Some additional reading would be advised to insure your safety and well being! The syndrom is untreatable. The only way to deal with one is to get them as far out of your life as possible as soon as possible. Never look back.
If you read the articles quoted above you will probably find that you have at least one psychopath in your life. That reminds me...they sometimes run in packs. Watch out for yourself.